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Letten appoints acting First Assistant U.S. Attorney

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has picked a replacement for the first assistant U.S. attorney who was demoted amid allegations of improper online activity.

Letten appointed longtime prosecutor Fred Harper as acting first assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the criminal division.

Harper was the deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is led by Letten.

Harper led the prosecution of former Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price and political operative Mose Jefferson.

In March, the WDSU I-Team found that Harper was one of dozens of people on a Lake Tahoe ski trip that prosecutors described as an illegal fundraiser for former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. Harper acknowledged making the trip about 10 years ago but denied any knowledge that the outing was a political money-maker.

Harper told WDSU in a March interview that he was aware the trip was organized by Broussard. He said his payment to take part was made to a travel agency and that the event was billed as a "tax and ski seminar" -- not a fundraiser.

Harper said he never knowingly made a campaign contribution to Broussard.

Local businessman Fred Heebe -- who is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office -- filed a lawsuit earlier this month targeting Jan Maselli Mann, who was the first-assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the criminal division before being demoted.

In the documents, Heebe alleges that Mann used comment boards on the NOLA.com website -- the same site on which former federal prosecutor Sal Perricone made dozens of posts related to local officials and some individuals under scrutiny by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

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